Aquarius Jan 20th - Feb 18thSo true.
People will come from miles around to seek your wisdom on all manner of things, which is proof that people will do anything for a good laugh.
Now that you've listened to me rant about sparkly vampires and why freaks are awesome, I want your opinion on something.
Sex in YA literature.
Distasteful? Necessary?
Do you agree with Stephenie Meyer's concept that teenage sex is okay as long as you're married? Do you think sex has no place in books for teenagers? Do you believe that the sexual escapades of the characters in Gossip Girl are a true representation of youth today?
Which books have handled this well, or badly? And how much is too much?
I'd really like to know what you think.
One other thing: I need stuff to blog about. Ask me a weird question. I can expand no further on the topics of sparkly vampires and zombie strippers.
10 notes passed:
What do you think of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster?
Hey Steph, this is a great question, and I'm probably not gonna be able to answer it fully in a blog comment, but I'll just brainstorm and, uh, project some words on the screen or something for you, okay? :) I feel like the whole "no sex until marriage but sex afterwards is fine" idea that Stephenie seems to be portraying in Twilight cannot work in modern times. It works in Twilight because Edward was from the early 20th century, where this practice was common. Nowadays, however, two-thirds of all teenagers have had sex by the time they reach college. That's a scientific fact. Programs such as abstinence-only, virginity clubs, and purity rings are ignoring the facts and trying to repress change. And if people inevitably end up not following the "laws" of these programs, they are ostracized and alienated and made to feel worthless and horrible at the time when they'd probably like the most support and guidance.
As for sex in YA lit, I'm fine with anything but explicit scenes. It's the reality of teenage life nowadays, and teenagers enjoy fiction because it A) teaches or shows them something they never knew before, or B) is something they can relate to. Teenagers are going to have sex, and they're going to have sex in all different ways: losing their virginity to their longtime loving partner, being raped, having casual hookups. For the critics who condemn literature as being too full of sexual references, curses, or things that they otherwise deem "unrealistic" and "unhealthy," face it: that IS reality.
Niels, I love the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I just wrote a novel (S.A.D.) on Intelligent Design vs. Evolution in school. It’s adult fiction but not published yet.
Steph Su, I agree.
Steph Bowe, interesting topic. I come to this dicussion as a parent of a tween and teen. I’m more concerned about the message than the act of sex itself or description.
I don’t want my 11 year old daughter reading Gossip Girl not because of the sex but the casual attitude towards it. The drinking scenes and materialism are even worse. When she’s older, she could read it with a more ironic perspective.
The issue for me is that sex should come with love, a real relationship and being responsible about birth control. Many teens may not be ready for it. I don’t think marriage is key so much as maturity. It’s also useful for kids to read age appropriate novels about teen rape – like Halse Anderson’s Speak.
Meyers is a Mormon so she comes with her own set of beliefs. My daughter did read the series. I talked to her about it, and it seemed fine although I didn’t read the last book.
At my daughter’s age, my friends and I all read Judy Blume’s Forever which is about first time sex and its emotional toll. In our teen years, we gravitated towards adult commercial fiction and romance books partly because most other YA of our time (80’s) ignored teenaged sex.
I’d rather that teens read sensitive YA books tackling sex at their age level than trashy adult fiction. Books are a great ways to explore without taking action. They can also help a teen think about big decisions in life, like whether or when to be sexually active. It’s such a personal decision. I’d hope that YA authors would think responsibly when writing about sex. It shouldn’t be taken too lightly or used just to sell books.
It's not what teenagers are doing, but why they are doing it. That's true for sex in books and in life! In my opinion, marriage isn't necessary, and neither is love (though it is quite nice!) but there should at least be affection and curiosity. Doing it for peer pressure or to get someone to like you--well that's just bad choices and a bad read.
Hey Steph.
What a great question! I won't go into detail because hey, if this got into a huge debate over this topic, that wouldn't be good... and I doubt you'd like it, either.
I think that you shouldn't have sex until marriage; therefore, I don't think there should be pre-maritial sex in literature. Much of our culture is influenced by books, so when teenagers read about teenagers having sex, they decide to try it. Frankly, I think sex puts a lot of burden on both people, not only healthwise but also consciouswise... Virginity is a gift you give your future spouse. Who wants to admit to their spouse or girl/boyfriend that they're already had sex?
That's my opinion. I've cast my vote.
In Meyer's fantasy world, pedophilia is romantic so I'm not about to listen to anything that insane woman has to say.
As for sex in YA, I think a person needs to be really deluded to think that teens aren't having sex. Teen pregnancy anyone? But just like sex in any other book, it needs to serve a purpose. Unless it's smut. Then it serves its own purpose. But when there's a bonafide plot and the sex scene is necessary to further the plot or aid in the development of a character, then there's no reason not to have it. Making the book YA doesn't make me feel any different about having sex in it. I just think the sex is going to be a lot more awkward and not nearly as "good" as the kind you'll have in adult books of similar ilk. If it's realistic and serves a point, there's no reason for it to go.
I think sex in YA lit is fine. It's definitely getting more racy and I don't mind that. I do agree that I don't want the sex scenes to be too explicit... this isn't teen erotica. One sex scene that stayed with me is when they have sex for the first time in I Know It's Over. I thought it was kind of graphic but handled well.
Thanks for making reading so much fun!
http://thebookresort.blogspot.com/2009/05/reading-is-fun.html
You sure know how to spark a discussion Steph! ;)
Really an important subject though, seriously... I've actually thought about this too as far as my own writing goes, and how much I'm willing to put "onto paper", but like Sarah Laurence said in reference to Forever by Judy Blume, I think at the time the book came out that was such a shocking thing to see sex written about for teens in such a detailed way especially, but to me it's like isn't it better to have it written because, "Hello, it's out there...", then to have no discussion about it at all and leave us teens with more questions then we already have? Understating it by not showing it at all doesn't exactly open up the discussion about it either, and that probably does more harm then good, especially these days, because if we don't talk about it it puts us at risk because we wont have all the information.
I think as long as it's not like, "Let's hook up with random strangers unsafely!" A la Gossip Girl (Which, in all honesty, I'm in love with that show, but also I think a lot of the time it depends on the person. I don't want to go out there and say, "All teens are picking up on the messages and getting the wrong ideas about sex!" because I don't think that's necessarily true, though I think probably a lot of kids are doing this, there are some kids who are merely looking to shows like Gossip Girl for harmless, silly, (WONDERFUL) entertainment, and aren't picking up anything worse then their parents are picking up from Desperate Housewives.)
If it deals with the situation as the meaningful thing that it is, or can be, with the right person then that's good because sometimes teens might jump into something like that just because it's new to them and kind of scary but like a roller coaster where, though it's scary, it feels exciting to be doing something that feels like something you shouldn't be doing (If that makes sense. >_<). Like they should have examples of it, good ones, so that they understand that it's something that needs to happen at the right time, and with the right person, and I think the stories and shows where it does get rushed are good too though because it gives you a chance to experience that without having to really go through it you know? And then it's like, "Whoa, that's terrible that it had to happen that way for ___," and then it can give you perspective as to how you want to handle that situation in the future so you can say, "Eek, that was bad, I don't want that to happen to me.", where as if it's not brought up at all you can't learn from other peoples mistakes.
*out of breath* OK enough out of me! XD Great discussion though! ^^
Awesome topic. I must admit, ignoring the facts don't make them go away. Communication is key. Sex sells ~ period! As for when someone should have sex is a personal decision. Unfortunately, forcing someone to engage is not sex in anyway it is RAPE... not sex of anykind.
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